Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Is IKEA totally insane?

What are these people thinking?

I opened up my Chicago Tribune (which means I took out of not one, but two separate plastic bags an enormous pile of paper, some of which is news and most of which are ads) and found within it the 370-page 2007 IKEA catalogue. Glossy, heavy paper, full color, etc.

So about 1,000,000 people received this very-expensive-to-print catalogue. And what will most of them do with it?

OK, honestly, I don't really know. Perhaps 950,582 Chicagoans have a strong attachment to IKEA (just one "Chicago-area" locations out in the Northwest suburbs) and will treasure this catalogue. Realistically, I've got to think that hundreds of thousands of these catalogues will be thrown away, not even recycled (Chicago's recycling program is a joke, a travesty, very pathetic).

What an awesome waste of money and disgusting addition to the region's landfills.

PS: If you don't have a 2007 IKEA catalogue, would like one, and live in the US, I will send mine to you. Please let me know (include address).

2 comments:

I am moving from Munich to Ottawa and was looking at price difference between North America and Europe. IKEA products are at least 50% more expensive in the US and Canada after converting to another USD/CAD. I wonder if there is high demand on IKEA furniture as I assume Americans/Canadian are better off buyin local stuff.

As far as Americans/Canadians buying local stuff, I can't speak to Canada (although I would recommend anyone moving there research the tariff issues), but America imports lots of deflation through such entities as Walmart. Also, the Chinese are sucking up raw materials such as wood and cement, which has raised construction and manufacturing costs in the US significantly. The US balance of trade is so out of whack that it is becoming more economical to use all the empty containers that are stacking up to build housing.